Readings:

PRAYER (traditional language)
Merciful God, who didst raise up thy servant Frances Joseph-Gaudet
to work for prison reform and the education of her people: Grant that
we, encouraged by the example of her life, may work for those who
are denied the fullness of life by reasons of incarceration and lack of
access to education ; through Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with
thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

PRAYER (contemporary language)
Merciful God, who raised up your servant Frances Joseph-Gaudet to
work for prison reform and the education of her people: Grant that we,
encouraged by the example of her life, may work for those who are
denied the fullness of life by reasons of incarceration and lack of access
to education ; through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and
the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

FRANCES
JOSEPH-GAUDET

EDUCATOR AND PRISON
REFORMER

(30 December 1934)

Frances Joseph-Gaudet (1861- December 1934), prison reform worker and
educator, was born in a log cabin in Holmesville, Mississippi of African
American and Native American descent. She was raised by her grandparents.
Later she went to live with a brother in New Orleans where she attended
school and Straight College. Widowed early, she dedicated her life to
prison reform. Beginning in 1894 she held prayer meetings, wrote letters,
delivered messages, and secured clothing for black prisoners, and later
for white prisoners as well. Her dedication to prisoners and prison reform
won her the respect of prison officials, city authorities, the governor,
and the Prison Reform Association. A delegate to the Women’s Christian
Temperance Union international convention in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1900,
she worked for the reform of young blacks arrested for misdemeanor or
vagrancy. Joseph-Gaudet was the first woman to support juvenile offenders
in Louisiana, and her efforts helped found the juvenile court. She eventually
purchased a farm and founded the Gaudet Normal and Industrial School.
The school, which eventually expanded to 105 acres and numerous buildings,
also served as a boarding school for children with working mothers. Joseph-Gaudet
served as principal of the school until 1921 when she donated the school
to the Episcopal Church of Lousiana. Though the school closed in 1950,
the Gaudet Episcopal Home opened in the same location four years later
to serve African American children ages four to sixteen. The endowment
fund currently supports St. Luke’s Community Center on North Dorgenois
Street, where a hall honors Frances Joseph-Gaudet.